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A rodent-borne virus with a scary name. A mid-ocean cruise ship in quarantine. Several people dead and more falling sick.
It is no wonder that an outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus on a luxury liner in the Atlantic has revived some Covid-era trauma and panic online.
That has presented a dilemma to health officials: how to communicate quickly and clearly about a virus which is not new and unlikely to cause a pandemic, but where knowledge gaps remain — without inadvertently fomenting fear.
“Hantavirus thread incoming,” posted the health department of Illinois state in the US earlier this week about a risk-free case unrelated to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak.
